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Saturday, 27 April 2013

In spite of a wet night preceded by hail and with a minimum temperature of 0.1°C we caught 21 moths of eight species in one garden and two woodland traps. A first for us this year was this rather beautiful Shoulder Stripe.

Tuesday, 23 April 2013

One Heath trap in a mixed woodland last night produced 20 moths of 11 species. Purple Thorn and Water Carpet were our first for this year. The full list was: Common Quaker 6, Clouded Drab 3, Hebrew Character 2, Twin-spotted Quaker 2, 1 each of Purple Thorn, Pale Pinion, Dotted Border, Water Carpet, Chestnut, Engrailed (a very dark specimen) and Diurnea Fagella.

Sunday, 21 April 2013

At last I found one flying in Longwood near Lampeter. Given the warmth and shelter along the ride I was hoping for more.
Worth keeping an eye out for them at Cwm Soden next Sunday(butterfly walk with Lin) if its sunny.

Saturday, 20 April 2013

The disappointing turnout of moths (due to the freezing and moonlit conditions last night) belied the excellent habitat of the Hafod estate however other creatures took advantage of the latter and showed up:cuckoo called twice, water vole swam about in a pond and a peacock butterfly did a fly- by. A dozen two-legged creatures also attended the convivial meeting and lavished unexpected attention on the very few but very variable Clouded Drabs and a less well marked Quaker!
We will try Hafod again in June but it will be short notice when the night is warm and humid so keep an eye on this blog!
Many thanks to Tony Ellis and staff at the estate for their generous help; John Rainbow for access to his private garden within the estate and to Red Liford for his part in the arrangements.

A beautiful sunny morning followed a cold night in the stunning Hafod estate. Unfortunately moths were in short supply with only a few Clouded Drab, Common Quaker, Hebrew Character, Diurnea Fagella, and the Brindled Beauty seen below.

Friday, 19 April 2013

Last nights garden trap produced small numbers of Orthosia species and this Early Moth. This is outside the normal flight period for this moth but the latest one recorded by Fowles in "The moths of Ceredigion" was 19/04.

We placed three traps on Saturday night - two in nearby woodland and one
in our garden - and were rewarded with a total of 84 moths These
included five Orthosias (Small, Common, Twin-spotted Quakers, Hebrew
Character & Clouded Drab), Early Grey, Chestnut & Red Chestnut,
Brindled & Double-striped Pug, Mottled Grey, Early Tooth-striped,
Engrailed & Early Thorn.

Saturday, 13 April 2013

There was a good turn out for the first event of the year. Liz had positioned traps around the bog and some local woodland. Despite a minimum overnight temperature of just 2 C, there was a good number of macro moths of 11 species: Yellow horned, Hebrew character, Small quaker, Common quaker, Chestnut, Clouded drab, Early grey, Red sword-grass, Oak beauty, March moth, and Red chestnut.

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Early grey

Red chestnut

Yellow horned

After a refreshing coffee break, Ian showed us his Rothamsted trap and gave a very interesting explanation of its operation and the history of the recording scheme, which has been running for the last 50 years. The records have shown a dramatic drop in the numbers of moths recorded over that time, which should be a concern for all of us.

With little prospect of seeing the Orange underwings due to the lack of sunshine, we had a prolonged lunch at the Talbot in Tregaron.

Monday, 1 April 2013

Forthcoming moth meetings:
April 13th Cors Caron: details in the events section
April 20th Hafod, Mansion site and woods.
May 11th University of Aberystwyth Bioblitz weekend
May 18th Cardigan area private garden
June 14th Denmark Sacred Earth Trust
August 11th Llanerchaeron NT property
Other dates will be added later.
For all locations full details will be found in the Events section when they become available.

Went down to Longwood near Lampeter yesterday, as it was sunny and the wood is sheltered from the easterly winds, to try and find O U's. It was warmish in the most sheltered parts but no moths and hardly any birds were to be seen or heard. Unsurprising as pussy willows are still the tiny grey fluffs they were a month ago. No bumble bees seen either.